Journal of Language and Literacy Education Vol. 16 Issue 1—Spring 2020

Review of The Secret Commonwealth (The Book of Dust Vol.2) Written by Philip Pullman

Adult/Educator Reviewer: Sisilia Novena Kusumaningsih University of Montana, Missoula, MT Student Reviewer: Jiankun Peng, 7th Grade

Pullman, P. (2019). The book of dust: The secret commonwealth (The book of dust Vol. 2). New York, NY: Knopf Books for Young Readers.

ISBN: 978-0-553-51066-9

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Journal of Language and Literacy Education Vol. 16 Issue 1—Spring 2020

Adult Review: Sisilia Novena Kusumaningsih

In this volume, Lyra Belacqua or Lyra Silvertongue, rape. In addition, the story puts an agency of the who is a baby in the first volume of the book, i.e. La church or Magisterium as an antagonist, which might Belle Sauvage, is a twenty-year-old college student. be a sensitive issue for a particular religion. With its Unlike ordinary people who would be in agony when authority and resources, the Magisterium oftentimes they are far from their daemons, Lyra is able to arrests and assassinates people who hinder the separate from Pantalaimon, her pine marten daemon. organization from reaching its goal. Any activities or Her life as a college student of St. Sophia changes actions that against its mission are received as nothing dramatically after Pantalaimon witnesses a murder of short of heresy. The extreme dark tone of the story is a botanist and brings a note that leads them to a one of the aspects that an educator should consider rucksack of important journals about magical rose oil prior to recommending or using this over six-hundred in Central Asia and Dust. The situation becomes more page novel. intense when The Consistorial Court of Discipline is also interested in the possession of the rucksack and The Secret Commonwealth is heavy with philosophical capturing Lyra. This chaotic situation forces Lyra and nuances that might create a complexity in her daemon to flee from the university. During the understanding the messages delivered by the author. escape, Lyra’s obsession to The Hyperchorasmians, a The trading of daemons, for instance, is the novel by Gottfried Brande that questions the existence manifestation of Philip’s concern on poverty that of daemons, estranges her from Pan. forces people to trade their most valuable belongings (probably even their own lives, since daemons are the This book is recommended for readers ages 13-20. On extension of humans) to enable their family members the cusp of adulthood, Lyra is intrigued to perceive a to survive. Hence, guidance by educators are needed reality vividly through the lenses of science. The fact as the students delve into the novel. that she and her daemon are separable convinces her that some truth are indoctrinated. Lyra’s dilemma to Student Review: Jiankun Peng believe in a particular thing as what it is and to seek a logical explanation sacrifices her relationship with Pan. Her daemon believes that somebody has stolen The Secret Commonwealth is a fiction book that is set Lyra’s imagination and he decides to leave and search in a world where a corrupted magisterium, the for it. In the rest of the book, Lyra spends her journey authority of the church, rules all of continental to find Pantailamon, which she believes is in the City Europe. The people in the book also have souls that of Moon. In the quest of searching for Pan, she is live outside their body in the form of an animal. After involved in an adventure that leads her to reveal an nearly twenty years after the events in La Belle Sauvage excruciating truth. Upon her admiration for and ten years after the events in His Dark Materials, Hyperchorasmians’ theory, she finds that the book is Lyra, the main character, is now a twenty written to conceal its’ author involvement in daemons year old undergraduate studying at Jordan college. trading. In brief, Pullman perfectly portrays a teens’ Malcom and Alice, who had saved baby Lyra from a characterisitic curiosity in Lyra’s personality. Her madman when she was just a baby, now work as a gripping journey in the novel would appeal to readers professor and housekeeper at Jordan, watching over who love adventures. Retreading some elements in its her. Lyra could barely believe the adventures that she prequel, The Secret Commonwealth captures several had gone through, except that Pan, her beloved scenes of brutal assassination and an attempted gang daemon, is now separated from her. When a dying

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Journal of Language and Literacy Education Vol. 16 Issue 1—Spring 2020

man entrusts to them crucial information, Lyra read for fans of the series. The series is a trilogy, so far returns to a dangerous world that she thought she had with only two books, with the third still left behind forever. With Pan having gone on his own unpublished. La Belle Sauvage is the first in the quest, Lyra must undertake the journey alone. I would trilogy, with The Secret Commonwealth being the recommend this book to middle school and above. second. I would also recommend that His Dark The Secret Commonwealth is a sequel to the widely Materials be read first, as in the book there are some acclaimed His Dark Materials trilogy, and is a must key events that are referred to.

Jiakun’s Drawing

“Elsa” Schooner that Pan Sailed Upon

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